the nature of Hunting – the nature of social representation depictions of Hunting in nineteenth-century Hungarian Art

Adrienn prÁgAi

tHe nAture of Hunting –tHe nAture of soCiAl representAtion

Depictions of Hunting in Nineteenth-century Hungarian Art

ature placen is the wher habitat of e hunters wild and animals, the game come face to face – things have been this way since the start of human history. However, the three-way relationship between nature, game and hunter has evolved continuously over the millennia. initially, catching prey was essential for human survival, but as animal husbandry and crop cultivation improved, this function of hunting became less important, and rather than a means of subsistence, hunting became an optional pastime, a passion, a sport, and more recently, a part of forestry management. this process of development was accompanied by manifestations of status – for example hunting attire, customs, specialist language, and the entire set of practices – and also by representations in art. whatistherelationshipbetweenhuntinganditsvisualrepresentation?inearlyhuman history, in the lives of primitive peoples, the depiction of the act was part of a ceremony held to assist the hunt. the oldest currently known example of this is a cave drawing of people hunting wild pigs and buffalos discovered on the indonesian island of Celebes. 1 significantly,thepanelalsodepictstherianthropes,beingscapableofshapeshiftinginto creatures that possess both human and animal characteristics. this implies that the indonesianrockartisalsotheearliestrelicofhuntingmagic,themysticalritualassociated withhunting.Ascivilisationprogressed,huntingbecameboundtosuchculturalfactors asreligionandart,whichlaterevolvedintoincreasinglysophisticatedbeliefs,mythologicalideologies,andeventuallycomplexritualsandworksofart. 2 Howdid representations

1| Aubert, lebe, and oktaviana 2019, 442–45. 2| An example of these rituals is the cult of the töret (a sprig broken from a tree), still practised by Hungarian hunters today as an emblem of respect both for the hunted game and among hunters themselves. this involves breaking off twigs, ideally three-pronged ones, from a tree growing at the site of the kill. Hunters use the sprigs in four ways: by placing one in the mouth of the game as a symbol of its last meal; by placing them on the animal’ s wounds; by dipping one in the blood of the game and affixing it to the hat of the hunter who fired the fatal shot (the so-called sikertöret, or ’ sprig of success ’); finally, when a fellow hunter is laid to rest, a gyásztöret (’ sprig of mourning’) is worn in the hat of each mourner, which is then placed in the grave.

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of hunting develop under the influence of the religiosity that was present at the very beginning and of the later changes in society and artistic tastes? How was hunting portrayed in nineteenth-century Hungarian art?

HUNTING AS A DEMONSTRATION OF STATUS

the connection between hunting and demonstrations of status and wealth is inseparable from people ’ s access to hunting, that is, from whether or not an individual – irrespectively of their social rank – was permitted to hunt. laws passed in Hungary in 1848 eliminated the privileges of the nobility, and the Hunting Act of 1872 made the right to hunt an integral part of land ownership. Although the number of people entitled to hunt increased somewhat as a result of these laws, hunting remained the hobby of the wealthiest in society, and so the context of the present examination embraces the habits and depictions of hunting prevalent among the aristocracy and within royal and imperial circles. Hunting, as it is known in modern european societies and in Hungarian culture, is fundamentally associated with its function as a symbol of status and prestige. examples of this are hunting attire, with its distinctive meanings, the displays (catafalques) of prey laid out after a successful hunt, trophies taken from bagged game (such as antlers, horns or tusks), taxidermy preparations, as well as textual (literary) and visual (artistic, photographic) records of specific hunts. in the case of these phenomena and objects, besides being of ritual importance and recalling the experience of the hunt, a further important criterion is high aesthetic quality.

3 trophies, stuffed animals, and pictorial representations initially decorated the halls of aristocratic palaces, and could therefore only be admired by a privileged few (fig. 1), although later they became increasingly accessible, eventually taking their place before their widest audiences at the world’ s fairs. early milestones of this process included the first exhibition of trophies held at the Hungarian national riding school in 1871, and the hunting sections at the Millennium exhibition in budapest in 1896 and at the exposition universelle in paris in 1900.

4 At the regular international exhibitions, which featured both professional and cultural programmes, Hungary always participated with a rich and complex set of hunting-related exhibits, including an increasing proportion of works of fine art. in the meantime, hunting and the protection of game in Hungary were gradually formalised: 1881 saw the establishment of the national Hungarian Hunting protection society, which later changed its name to the national Hungarian Hunters ’ Association. the association was responsible for organising hunting activities in Hungary, and it enjoyed strong social and political support, with Crown prince rudolf its patron and Archduke Joseph August its honorary chairman (cat. nos. 39–40). in reference to the vision of saint Hubert, the association chose as its emblem a stag with a radiant cross

3 | the act of laying out the bagged game in a precise arrangement, in accordance with pre-set rules, naturally also involves an aesthetic factor, but the role of taste is even more apparent in hunting narratives and paintings. 4 | bányai 1996, 211–15.

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györgy klösZ, The Dining Room of Count Tasziló Festetics ’ s Mansion in Berzence, ca. 1900 between its antlers, as can be seen on the medal produced by lajos berán, an exceptionally prolific exponent of Hungarian medal design (cat. no. 27).

HUNTERS FROM MYTHOLOGY AND HISTORY

Hungarian hunting culture experienced upswings initially in the reform era (in the second quarter of the nineteenth century) and again in the period after the establishment of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (in 1867), and was dominated by phrases, customs and symbolic acts adopted from germanophone areas. 5 in spite of this, writings that discussed hunting beliefs, such as József lakatos ’ s book of 1910, which dealt with superstitions, tended to regard veneration of saint Hubert as a part of german hunting culture. 6 depictions of saint Hubert appear only sporadically in nineteenthcentury Hungarian art; the martyr saint eustace was likewise not a common subject for paintings and sculptures in this period. However, it is beyond doubt that in earlier centuries, chapels dedicated to saint Hubert and saint eustace were erected in forests

5| this can be observed above all in the development of hunting terminology in Hungarian, with words and expressions borrowed directly from germany and Austria or translated literally from the german language. Cf. Csőre 2003, 51–64. 6| lakatos 1910, 69.

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belonging to the aristocracy, for example on the estate of the pálffy family in detrekő (plavecké podhradie, slovakia), in konyha (kuchyňa, slovakia), and in ugod and Csákvár, on the esterházy estate. 7 Hunting motifs appear not only in religious depictions, but also in scenes inspired by classical mythology8 (cat. nos. 1–15). images of the main characters, such as the greek goddess Artemis and her roman counterpart diana, and the roman forest deity silvanus silvestris, can also be found on a variety of Hungarian relics, although their presence in nineteenth-century works can rather be attributed to cultural education at the time. to conclude their artistic training, painters and sculptors embarked on a study tour of europe. besides england, the main destination of the grand tour was italy, where young artists familiarised themselves with the main periods and masterpieces of italian art. 9

7 | it was mostly hunting masses that were held in these chapels. According to nineteenth-century anecdotal descriptions and feuilletons, hunting masses were held before the hunt, and as it was compulsory to listen all the way through to the end, such events were designed to be kept short. Cf. Kalauz 1867, 312. 8 | the story of diana and Actaeon revolves around a hunt. while out hunting, Actaeon accidently catches sight of diana bathing naked. enraged, the goddess curses Actaeon, who is transformed into a stag and torn apart by his own hounds. 9 | sinkó 2018, 53–55. 2

kÁroly MArkó tHe elder, Diana and Callisto, 1850

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kÁroly MArkó tHe elder, Diana Mourns the Slain Stag (Apollo and the Stag), 1831 the most outstanding examples of mythological hunting depictions in Hungarian art are found in the oeuvre of károly Markó the elder, an artist with wide-ranging cultural knowledge, including thorough familiarity with classical antiquity. He began to paint mythological compositions in the 1820s when he was living in Vienna, but his depictions of diana were produced in italy. diana was the goddess of hunting and animals, like Artemis, but unlike the latter, diana was also the goddess of the moon. several myths related to diana feature in Markó’ s work: he painted her during the hunt, in the company of her nymphs, with Callisto, who became a victim of revenge, and also beside her love, endymion10 (fig. 2). His painting of 1833 entitled Diana at the Hunt shows the goddess and her entourage in a romantic, wild landscape, as she is

10 | in the wake of ovid’ s Metamorphoses, the story of Callisto became widely known: the deeds of greek and roman deities are mixed in the work, as Jupiter, the chief roman god, falls in love with one of the nymphs accompanying diana on her hunts, Callisto, daughter of lycaon, king of the greek state of Arcadia. Jupiter assumes the form of diana (Artemis) and seduces Callisto, who thus breaks her vow of chastity and is therefore expelled from diana ’ s entourage. Callisto gives birth to her son, Arcas, who later hunts his own mother, who has been transformed into a bear by Juno (Hera). Jupiter saves Callisto and Arcas by placing them in the sky as the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, the great and little bears.

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about to take aim at the roebuck that is fleeing from her hounds (cat. no. 9). the “consequences ” of this story can be seen in a painting made two years earlier, in which diana (or Artemis) is mourning a slain stag, while Apollo beside her holds a lyre in his hand (fig. 3). since the story of endymion, according to ancient sources, was associated not with the goddess of hunting but with the moon, this legend only later became part of hunting culture. 11 the greek goddess of the moon, selene, was gradually transformed into diana in seventeenth-century art, from which point onwards the goddess was portrayed mounted on a stag, together with her bow and other hunting attributes, on her way to visit her love, as we can see in another painting by Markó the elder12 (cat. no. 10). Hungarian art historical literature has hitherto devoted relatively little attention to works on the theme of hunting, which makes the writings of the literary historian dr. domokos imre nagy particularly important, partly because he dealt with Hungarian artists and other artists active in Hungary who are otherwise hardly known in art history research. 13 in nagy ’ s publications, which touch on forestry, hunting and nature conservation, religious and mythological depictions constitute a separate group. He raises the question of whether it is justifiable to discuss these pictures together with works of art that take hunting as their theme. there are several arguments against this: biblical and mythological scenes do not depict actual hunts, and the artistic intent is also incomparably different from, for example, the situation with a “game strap picture ” ; furthermore, they can often be accused of depicting the animals, the costumes, the weapons and indeed the entire practice of hunting in an inauthentic, inexpert manner. 14 on the other hand, when hunting is seen as a phenomenon of cultural history, there is no doubt that depictions of saint Hubert or diana form an integral part of the history of this type of painting, because with certain attributes of theirs they made a significant contribution to the iconography of hunting. Just as important to the history of depictions of hunting are those based on uniquely Hungarian hunting themes, such as the legend of Hunor and Magor, the tragic death of prince saint emeric (imre), and the death of the military leader, poet and ban of Croatia, Miklós Zrínyi. the legendary hunters and ancestors of the Huns and the Magyars, Hunor and Magor were out hunting for the legendary creature known as the wondrous stag when they came across a land that was suitable for settlement. representations of this scene in Hun and Hungarian mythology survive to this day in folk art and traditions, including even minstrel songs, and in fine art (cat. nos. 17, 22).

11 | Apollodorus, book 1, chapter 7, section 5. 12 | According to the story, selene, the greek goddess of the moon, felt deep love for endymion, and as she was unable to accept that the young shepherd would grow old and die, she put him into an eternal sleep. every night, the Moon goddess admired the boy ’ s undying beauty. later, when diana began to be depicted as the moon goddess, additional characters were introduced, with Cupid guiding her to the ever-sleeping endymion. 13 | Among those he writes about are aristocrats who painted their own hunting experiences, such as Count ferenc lamberg, Count Manó Andrássy and baron béla orczy, and authors of hunting literature who illustrated their own stories, such as sándor nemeskéri-kiss. nagy 1972; nagy 1974, 149–61; nagy 1988, 152–63; nagy 1996, 243–63. 14 | the game strap consists of straps of leather or hemp tied together, to which small winged game can be attached, thus allowing them to cool more easily.

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AntAl ligeti And sÁndor wÁgner, King Matthias Returning from the Hunt (VajdaHunyad Castle in the Age of King Matthias), 1872 A similarly popular hunting motif can be discovered in the legends about king Matthias i (Matthias Corvinus): instructive tales about the king roaming the country in disguise, often taking part in hunts, are preserved in a lively and colourful folklore tradition. they relate the king’ s miraculous, heroic deeds or romantic escapades while out hunting, and even explain the origins of certain place names, as Matthias sometimes had a castle erected to commemorate a notable hunting adventure, as was the case with dedevár, for example, a fortress named after the king’ s favourite huntsman, dede. 15 while some of these stories remained local legends, hunting became a general feature of the cult surrounding Matthias Corvinus, and the tradition resulted in both written and physical relics. one such relic was a set of antlers, which, legend has it, came from a stag slain by king Matthias; it was kept in the esterházy family ’ s hunting lodge in Csákvár until it was stolen in summer 1861. 16 depictions of Matthias Corvinus at the hunt, combining landscape painting with genre scenes, can be exemplified by the work entitled King Matthias Returning from the Hunt, painted by Antal ligeti and

15 | Magyar 2017, 201. 16 | Hölgyfutár 1861, 615. 17 | the painting was exhibited at the Vienna world’ s fair in 1873 under the title of Die Burg Vajda-Hunyad im restaurierten Zustande: in the exhibition catalogue the work is credited to Antal ligeti, while sándor wágner is given as the painter of the figures. Cf. Vienna 1873, 179.

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sándor wágner, which shoes the king as a passionate hunter, riding a white horse, galloping towards Vajdahunyad Castle accompanied by a stately procession. 17 the hunt was undoubtedly a success, as an assortment of bagged game can be seen in the picture: a stag with magnificent antlers and a hind beside it on a cart, and a wild boar, a hare and various gamebirds being carried by the king’ s attendants18 (fig. 4). the narrative poem Beautiful Helen by Mihály Vörösmarty also tells of a hunt undertaken by Matthias Corvinus:19 the king, disguised as a simple hunter, is roaming the forests of the Vértes hills when he catches sight of a woman chasing a butterfly, who immediately 5

soMA orlAi petriCH, series of Beautiful Helen illustrating the poem by Mihály Vörösmarty, ii (The Hideout), 1866

18 | king Matthias Corvinus, with his famous passion for hunting and his game parks, was also the subject of an article in Vadász- és Versenylap [Hunting and sporting Magazine] 1871, 254. 19 | first published: Vörösmarty 1834, 179–85.

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soMA orlAi petriCH, series of Beautiful Helen illustrating the poem by Mihály Vörösmarty, Viii (The Mourning), 1866

captures his heart. the woman’ s name is ilonka (Helen) peterdi. from this moment, the hunter’ s desire comes into conflict with the king’ s patriotism and obligations, and this leads to the final tragedy of the poem. the unrecognised hunter invites Helen and her father to buda, where they are shocked to discover that the man they had hosted in their home was in fact the king. Matthias later returns to the homestead in the Vértes, only to find it abandoned. 20 in 1866 soma orlai petrich produced a series of eight intimate genre scenes relating the story, 21 one of a number of artistic

20 | Vaderna 2019. 21 | soma orlai petrich, series of Beautiful Helen illustrating the poem by Mihály Vörösmarty, i–Viii. (The Hideout, The Surprise, The Introduction, The Toast, The Farewell, The Recognition, The Lamentation, The Mourning), 1866. oil on canvas, 86 × 74 cm. Hungarian national bank, depositary program, on loan to the petőfi literary Museum.

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reworkings of BeautifulHelen created in the nineteenth-century (figs. 5–6). the Matthias fountain sculpted by Alajos stróbl for the royal palace in buda Castle was probably adapted from a wall fountain commissioned by Count Miklós József esterházy for his palace in tata, but which was not completed due to the count’ s death. the group of sculptures illustrates the story of beautiful Helen: Matthias, dressed in hunting garb, stands at the top of the rock formation, while down below, to his left, the young beautiful woman sits and caresses a deer. Accompanying them are a hornblower, a master huntsman and a falconer (sometimes identified as the italian humanist scholar, galeotto Marzio), as well as different breeds of dog – a russian wolfhound and some transylvanian Hounds. the king gazes triumphantly into the distance, a monumental Carpathian stag at his feet, which was modelled on a beast killed by poachers. the stag was discovered close to szentendre by the gamekeeper of the architect Alajos Hauszmann, and the trophy was brought to his office in the royal palace of buda Castle, which was under reconstruction at the time, where it was seen not only by the sculptor, Alajos stróbl, but also by the king and emperor franz Joseph.

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22 | Cf. Hauszmann 1997, 65–66; Molnár 2001, 36–37; fáczányi 2006, 31–32. 7

gusZtÁV keleti, The Death of Zrínyi, the Poet, 1860s

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gusZtÁV keleti, Wild Boar Hunter, second half of the 19th century

Hunting accidents and attacks by wild boar are recurring motifs in Hungarian history and in folk tradition. Although the tragic death of prince saint emeric is not frequently depicted in art – the prince is more often shown as a youth beside king saint stephen and saint ladislaus, which his burial is also a common subject –, his ill-fated story has become a part of the Hungarian hunting memory. Also of great significance is the death of Miklós Zrínyi in 1664, which has been questioned many times, but is still recognised by historians as a hunting accident. pictures of his death are based on contemporary accounts, such as the memoirs of Miklós bethlen, a later chancellor of transylvania, who described the events as a witness who arrived on the scene after Zrínyi was attacked by the boar. 23 in nineteenth-century history painting, among the depictions of the heroic members of the Zrínyi dynasty, the death of the poet Zrínyi was a less popular theme, especially compared with the siege of szigetvár. 24 setting aside the details that survive in written tradition, the basic motif of his demise became more widely known in 1866, when gusztáv keleti’ s picture of The Death of Zrínyi, the Poet was turned into an art reproduction of the national Hungarian society of fine Arts25 (fig. 7). set in a lush, romantic landscape, Zrínyi is portrayed struggling until his dying breath, finally managing to slay the boar. the fatal hunt is depicted by keleti as though in a genre scene, and in the midst of the enormous forest vegetation, man

23 | Bethlen 1980, 603. 24 | Cennerné wilhelmb 1997. 25 | lithograph version: Hungarian national Museum, budapest, Historical gallery, inv. no. 61.105. Art cards, reproductions on artistic themes produced with a variety of techniques, were issued, for example, by the pest Art society, active from 1840, and by the national Hungarian society of Arts, founded in 1861.

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and beast appear almost as mere staffage figures or secondary characters. Another drawing by keleti is known, which may have been a study for the work that was later reproduced. the sketch also shows a rifle, but the outcome is the same: both hunter and boar lie dead on the ground (fig. 8).

HUNTERS: GENRE SCENES AND PORTRAITS

such is the thematic diversity among hunting-related artworks that it is possible to classify them into narrower types of paintings, such as genre scenes, portraits of hunters and animals, still lifes, and group portraits directly derived from the social customs of hunting. As we have seen in gusztáv keleti’ s historical hunting scene, many landscape painters included humans in nature as secondary characters, as though the tiny staffage figures were visual devices to emphasise the majesty and inexorability of the landscape. József Molnár was a landscapist who often populated his works with hunters: several paintings of his capture the forbidding mountains and cascading waterfalls of the tatras, and in these emphatic natural surroundings he placed a hunter accompanied by his dog, drinking from a spring or taking a rest26 (cat. no. 64). interestingly,whenpálszinyeiMerseretreatedtohisJernyeestate,thecanvasthatlaterbecame famous as a hunting scene was originally a painting of just trees and undergrowth. 27 it was only after a hiatus from painting, which lasted a decade, that he returned to this landscape, supplementing the scene with a hunter and his dog, resulting in the work entitled Oculi (cat. no. 66). szinyei Merse exhibited the work at the winter show of the nationalHungariansocietyoffineArtsin1894–1895,whereitreapedimmensesuccess, and was immediately purchased by franz Joseph for his private collection. the story of how Oculi came about is known from the memoirs of the painter’ s son, félix szinyei Merse, who wrote about his father’ s attitude towards hunting and sniping: owing to his comfort-loving nature, he was scarcely a passionate hunter. Among the sports, he liked riding most of all, and was an able rider, regarded as having a very good feel for horses. ... within the sport of hunting, he liked only sniping, and he would willingly accompany us hunters to their evening courtship flights. He once made a special request in connection with this, asking me to photograph a snipe in flight. i could never fulfil this request, however, partly because the vespertine light made photography impossible, but mostly because, as an immensely passionate hunter, whenever i saw a snipe, i would drop everything, camera and all, and reach for my rifle. My father did, however, once shoot a wild boar on a hunt with our neighbour, elek péchy, of which he was proud, because as the boar came towards him, he killed it with a single shot to the forehead. what joy

26| Another painting by József Molnár depicts a wild boar hunt. the work was reproduced several times in the mid-nineteenth century, including as a coloured lithograph in the album entitled Hunting and Sport in Hungary, published under the auspices of Count Manó Andrássy (Andrássy 1857). 27 | Budapest 1990, 108, 114.

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9 the artist’ s younger brother, Józsi szinyei Merse, posing for the painting Oculi, 1884

there was that evening, after the hunt, when he was ceremoniously initiated as a wild boar hunter!28

the subject of the painting was therefore inspired by the painter’ s favourite pastime of sniping, which required a high degree of marksmanship; the model for the hunter was his younger brother, József szinyei Merse, as proven by a photograph made at the same time as the painting29 (fig. 9). the painting Oculi was mentioned and reproduced in several articles published in the hunting magazine Nimród, which was launched in 1913, 30 so szinyei Merse ’ s work became widely known in hunting circles and was fully integrated into Hungarian hunting culture. the painting has featured in numerous exhibitions, including the show entitled The Forest in Hungarian Painting, held in sopron in 1958, and at the fine art exhibition hosted by the Műcsarnok (kunsthalle budapest) to coincide with the world Hunting expo in Hungary in 1971. in 1897, a few years after Oculi was completed, szinyei Merse painted a self-portrait that he later gifted to the gallery of artists ’ portraits in the uffizi in florence, granting the request of the italian minister of culture. 31 this can be regarded as the best-known Hungarian exemplar of a portrait of a hunter: in the painting, the artist is shown as a landowner pursuing his passion for walking in nature. His pose is particularly eloquent, as only one other self-portrait by szinyei Merse is known; painted in 1880, as a young man, the artist is dressed in fashionable bourgeois attire, standing against a neutral background. in his later self-portrait, by contrast, the personality and worldview of the then 52-year-old painter are also in evidence; the work was painted in the open air,

28 | szinyei Merse 1948, 124. 29 | published in: Budapest 1990, fig. 179. 30 | bobory 1928, 290–91; rédly 1929, 147; balla 1962, 7; telepy 1979, 447–49; telepy 1987, 256; Motesiky 1990, 8–9 (232–33); Muray 2006, 26. 31 | pál szinyei Merse, Self-portrait in a Leather Coat, 1897. oil on canvas, 90.5 × 70.5 cm. florence, galleria degli uffizi, inv. no. 1980 n.3759. published in: Florence 2013, 107–13.

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„in his beloved countryside of sáros county, as though he were hunt. His daughter rózsi szinyei Merse later described how the He painted his self-portrait out in the garden, by the clump about to set off on a painting came about: of birch trees. He had two large stands taken outside, on one of which he rested a large mirror, and on the other his canvas. it was only possible to work with such apparatus when fine weather was assured. 32

reflecting on the words of félix szinyei Merse, the painter was probably not a trueborn hunter, but loved nature with even more fervent passion. one of the most compelling indications of this is a decision he took in 1869 that would define his entire career: he quit the Academy of fine Arts in Munich, simultaneously abandoning history painting, and devoted himself to nature: i have decided henceforth to leave piloty ’ s school and to follow the teacher who will guide me the best, and this teacher of mine is nature. 33

szinyei Merse ’ s example also shows that the hunter portrait was expressly tied to the personality of the subject as a means of shaping their identity. the other type of hunting portrait forms part of the centuries-old tradition of regal representation: portraits of major secular dignitaries often feature hunting attire, a rifle, or a hunting dog, all of which can be interpreted as attributes of hunting (cat. nos 28–40). likenesses of ladies portrayed as the goddess diana and portraits of the king bearing witness to his hunting prowess all emphasise the extremely important role that images of hunting played in social representation. where did the notion originate for rulers to have themselves painted as hunters? A contribution to this idea may have been made by niccolò Machiavelli’ s political treatise of 1510 entitled The Prince (Il Principe), which the author dedicated to lorenzo de Medici. the writing lists the ideal character traits and qualities of a ruler, and also defines what makes a good military commander: hunting is described as a means of training a captain in both body and mind: endurance, knowledge of the terrain, and the pursuit of prey are equated with the tasks and expectations needed in war, when the “prey ” is the enemy.

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As regards action, he ought above all things to keep his men well organised and drilled, to follow incessantly the chase, by which he accustoms his body

32 | szinyei Merse 1989, 301. 33 | pál szinyei Merse ’ s letter to his father, München, 9/8 1869, published in szinyei Merse 1989, 136, no. 141. twenty-eight years later, when, as a member of parliament, he submitted his proposal for education reform at the Hungarian Academy of fine Arts to gyula wlassics, Minister of religion and education, his love for nature was still apparent: “ ... because the painter – the artist – could fully and correctly learn drawing, form, colour, tone, composition – in short, everything – from one master alone, and that sole master is nature itself. ” pál szinyei Merse ’ s proposal for reform of the Academy of fine Arts, 16 January 1897, published in szinyei Merse 1989, 156. 34 | Machiavelli 2019, chapter xiV, translated by william k. Marriott.

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to hardships, and learns something of the nature of localities, ... which knowledge is useful in two ways. firstly, he learns to know his country, and is better able to undertake its defence; afterwards, by means of the knowledge and observation of that locality, he understands with ease any other which it may be necessary for him to study hereafter; ... And the prince that lacks this skill lacks the essential which it is desirable that a captain should possess, for it teaches him to surprise his enemy, to select quarters, to lead armies, to array the battle, to besiege towns to advantage. The Prince was widely read throughout the ages, for example by the sixteenth-century prince of transylvania istván (stephen) báthory, and was referred to by such prominent nineteenth-century Hungarian statesmen as istván széchenyi and ferenc deák, and by the defining Hungarian art historian and art philosopher of the twentieth century, lajos fülep. 35 the concepts contained in The Prince were later adopted by other thinkers, so it can be assumed that this is part of the reason why rulers chose hunting portraits as a way of expressing their military strengths. talented artists were often employed by rulers to work in their courts as visual chroniclers, portraying them and the events of court life, often with a high degree of idealisation,tounderlinetherulers ’ variousvirtues.ofmajorsignificanceinthisrespect istheworkofMihályZichy,whosedrawingsandwatercoloursareheldbytheHermitage in saint petersburg, which preserves the memories of the erstwhile imperial russian court, and in the art collection of the british royal family. the artist served in russia under four emperors – nicholas i, Alexander ii, Alexander iii and nicholas ii – and recorded the everyday lives of the House of romanov, as well as their most important events and banquets. He also participated in the imperial hunts, making rapid sketches in pencil at the scene, which he later elaborated into works in watercolour or ink and wash, before arranging the finished pictures into series or albums. imperial hunts were held frequently, but Zichy ’ s incredible capacity for work enabled him to keep pace. several of the series he produced became famous, such as the set of fifty-two cards depicting the bear hunt in bol’ shoye lisino undertaken by tsar Alexander ii in 1860, 36 and the pictures he made of the bison hunt in belovezhsko in 1861. Mihály Zichy ’ s watercolour in the collection of the Hungarian national gallery, showing a scene from a bear hunt of 1869, bears witness to his time in russia (cat. no. 63). when Zichy was granted a few weeks ’ leave by tsar Alexander ii, he took up the invitation he had received from the prince of wales, the future king edward Vii. He spent his ten-day sojourn in scotland hunting, as recorded in an album of drawings and watercolours published in multiple languages. 37 these experiences persuaded Zichy to

35 | on the reception of Machiavelli in Hungary: kaposi 2007. 36 | Zichy ’ s cards, which sometimes verge on the grotesque, narrate the entire hunt. the hunting album containing the cards is held by the department of russian Cultural History at the Hermitage. Cf. princeva 2007, 101–6. 37 | MihályZichy, ScenefromtheseriesscottishHunts, FindingtheStag, 1875.engraving,795×569mm,unsigned. Museum of fine Arts – Hungarian national gallery, budapest, inv. no. g.59.68; Mihály Zichy, Scene from the seriesscottish Hunts, TakingHometheStag, 1875. sepia, watercolour, and pen and ink on paper, 735 × 535 mm, signedlowerright:Zichy1875.MuseumoffineArts–Hungariannationalgallery,budapest,inv.no.f.59.127.

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take up writing, and he addressed his account to the public: the text sent by the painter from saint petersburg was published in its entirety – in four instalments – in the Vadász- és Versenylap [Hunting and sporting Magazine]. 38 from his often anecdotal, sometimes humorous, almost sociographic descriptions of the hunts, it emerges that Zichy took a keen interest in the costumes, customs and culture of hunting, and greatly enjoyed the scottish sword dances, evening torchlight dances, and bagpipe music (cat. no. 65). Zichy ’ s works, with their detailed, realistic rendering of nature and their portraitlike depictions of high-ranking aristocrats, are among the most vivid hunting pictures ever produced. this may be due to the fact that his oeuvre combined high artistic quality with a love of hunting. 39 this is evident in the description composed by the french writer and critic théophile gautier, who visited the artist in his studio in saint petersburg in the winter of 1858–1859, and whose account made Zichy famous across europe: first we passed through a rather vast salon, one wall of which was occupied by a superb display of hunting equipment. there were rifles, shotguns, knives, game bags and gunpowder flasks hanging from the antlers of stags ’ heads, grouped together with pelts of lynx, wolf and fox, victims or specimens of Zichy. one could have believed one was at the home of a great hunter, or at least that of a sportsman, were it not for a panel, filled with shadows in the manner of rembrandt and depicting a prophet in his cave, a print of paul delaroche ’ s Hemicycle, engraved by Henriquel-dupont, and a mezzotint of Horace Vernet’ s [battle of] smala, which, together with a few empty frames awaiting canvases, attested that one was actually at the home of an artist.

40

the nineteenth century saw the emergence of paintings that focused on hunting not so much as a demonstration of wealth and power, but as a social event enjoyed by the nobility, thus reviving a type of painting with origins in sixteenth-century netherlandish art, namely the group portrait. paintings of groups of people, each of whom was rendered with their own individual likeness, became immensely popular. group portraits were characterised by a desire to record the given event and its participants as accurately as possible, so they can be seen as direct forebears of photography. the artistic precedents for the hunting group portrait can be found

38 | He wrote his report immediately following the hunt, in 1871, but we also know of an account he wrote in 1897 based on his experiences in saint petersburg in the 1860s. this was published in ten instalments by the Vadászlap [Hunting paper], see Zichy 1871. 39 | As the painter was descended from the noble Zics and Zajk (now sajka, Croatia) branches of the Zichy family, ennobled in the thirteenth century, his heritage included a coat of arms consisting of antlers branching out of a gold crown, with a silver greek cross hovering between them. further examples of Hungarian heraldry related to stags include the coats of arms of the bakócz family and of their branches, the erdődy and pálffy families, which depict a prancing stag emerging from behind a halfwheel. – for additional hunting-related heraldic motifs, see: Huszár 1972, 87–104. 40 | gautier 1867, i, 294 (translated from the french by réka krasznai). items belonging to Mihály Zichy in saint petersburg, such as his weapons and trophies, are now in the collection of the Mihály Zichy Memorial Museum in Zala.

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in two british types of painting, known as sporting art and the meet, which also have their roots in dutch art of the seventeenth century. Sporting art emerged in the late eighteenth century, during the reign of king george iii, when sporting activities derived from hunting, such as horse racing and fox hunting, were regarded as part of the culture. 41 in parallel with this, there arose a demand, especially among breeders who wanted to popularise their animals, for portrait-like depictions of racehorses, scent dogs, and even cattle and sheep. 42 one sub-genre of this is the meet painting, mostly depicting hunters and their pack gathering before the chase, and imbued with a narrative content. the meet painting was based on strict adherence to tradition, so during its two-hundred-year history in england, its components remained unchanged.

43 depictions of hunting in Hungary changed with developments in hunting culture. A major role in this was played by Count istván széchenyi, who founded the so-called Career society (later renamed the Animal Husbandry society, and then the national Hungarian Agricultural society) in 1827 and established the pest County Agrarian Company in 1839. thanks to széchenyi’ s reforms, Hungary began to import racehorses and greyhounds from england, and by the middle of the century, hunting with hounds (especially scent-hounds) had become widespread both in Hungary and in Austria. in addition to the methodological innovations imported from abroad, the adoption of british practices can also be observed in appearances, as the clothing worn by members of hunting companies was based on the english style. the scarlet coats used on fox hunts and the green coats worn when hunting for deer or hare are noticeably present in works of art from this time.

44 the influences of english art in Hungary were not manifested initially under the patronage of franz Joseph and the royal court, but in the circles of long-standing aristocratic families such as the széchenyi, nádasdy, esterházy and Zichy dynasties. the high nobility decorated their hunting lodges with trophies and paintings, while their passion for hunting was also reflected in their collections of weapons in their furniture crafted from antlers. besides the lamberg-Merán Mansion in Csákberény and the Cziráky Mansion in lovasberény, the mansion in nádasdladány belonging to Count ferenc nádasdy, a shareholder in the pest scent-Hunting Company and the first chairman of the national Hungarian Hunters ’ Association, was also decorated with a particularly fine array of hunting-related adornments. 45 the mansion’ s interiors can be reconstructed on the basis of surviving family archive documents and contemporary descriptions and photographs: the walls of the billiard room, for instance, were bedecked with eighty paintings by Harry Hall and eighty-one by emil Adam. 46 the majority were small pictures of horses, but emil Adam’ s painting of a noble hunting com-

41 | krüger 2018, 72–92. 42 | paget 1945, 8. 43 | Compare, for example, the works of these three artists from different periods: Henry thomas Alken, early nineteenth century; george goodwin kilburne, late nineteenth century, and Heywood Hardy, early twentieth century. Cf. turner reuter 2016, 6–11. 44 | Székesfehérvár 2019, 23–25. 45 | the hunting portrait of Count ferenc nádasdy: bányai in Székesfehérvár 2019, 3–152. 46 | sisa 2000, 21–54.

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10

eMil AdAM, Noble Hunting Company in Agárd, 1882

pany in Agárd (1882) also hung here47 (fig. 10). in 1889 the canvas was described by a journalist, Mrs. gizella Vértessy Makfalvay: the large painting in the men’ s drawing room is a work by Adam; the participants in the “Agárd pack hunt” surprised the count with this fine memorial, which shows some 30 figures, their faces true to life, in groups on coaches or on horseback, while their names are engraved on a plaque at the bottom of the frame.

48

Adam’ s work is a typical meet painting of the hunts that took place in Agárd, as is a painting produced almost twenty years later, which likewise attests to high esteem in which ferenc nádasdy was held by his social circles. emil Adam’ s son, richard benno Adam, who studied art in Munich, first rode out with the budapest hunters in autumn 1899, when he produced his first sketches for the forty-seven portraits and for his depictions of horses. 49 the completed work shows the company beside the danube, in a magnificent setting between Újpest and dunakeszi. in november 1900,

47 | the other painting recalling the hunts in Agárd is the equestrian portrait of ferenc nádasdy by béla pállik. – béla pállik, Pack Hunting, 1880. oil on canvas, 94 × 145 cm. Hungarian national Museum, budapest, Historical gallery, inv. no. 53.22. 48 | Vértessyné Makfalvay 1893, 92–100. 49 | several reports on the group portrait being made for Count ferenc nádasdy were published in the Vadász- és Versenylap, including a separate article on the artist, richard benno Adam: Vadász- és Versenylap 1899, 645; Vadász- és Versenylap 1900a, 45; Vadász- és Versenylap 1900b, 665; Vadász- és Versenylap 1900c, 668; Vadász- és Versenylap 1901, 609. 11

riCHArd benno AdAM, The Budapest Fox Pack Company, 1900

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12

wilHelM riCHter, The Fox Hunt of the Esterházy Family, 1870 on saint Hubert’ s day, the painting was presented to the count, who had it hung in the dining room of his mansion in nádasdladány (fig. 11). tata palace, owned by the esterházy family, lay in the game-rich lands of the Vértes and gerecse hills. while the estate was the venue for grand hunts, tata was also the centre of horse racing. Count Miklós József esterházy, a noted art patron, employed béla pállik at tata palace not only as a painter, but also as the director of his theatre and its performances, and as a stage designer. 50 the count also gave commissions to numerous other painters. 51 wilhelm richter, a painter at the Vienna Academy of fine Arts, also worked for the esterházy family, painting portraits and pictures of racehorses, while his best-known work is a painting of a fox hunt produced in 1870. 52 All the characteristics of a meet painting are found in this work: richter shows the moment when the hunters, the pack of dogs and the master, Count esterházy himself, are all assembling on the shore of the old lake in tata (fig. 12). the famous hunts of the counts ferenc nádasdy and Miklós József esterházy were surpassed only by the royal hunts of franz Joseph, which also served an important diplomatic function. in the course of the king’ s wide-ranging art patronage, he com-

50 | béla pállik, who was recognised abroad not only as a painter but also as a tenor singer, settled in Hungary at the request of Count esterházy. He was active in the early years of the theatre in tata, and a number of plays were directed by pállik. Cf. staud 1964, 117–20. 51 | Artists appearing on the inventory of esterházy palace, tata: Johann erdmann gottlieb prestel, Julius von blaas, béla pállik, wilhelm richter. Cf. kövesdi 2015, 217–21. 52 | the painting originally hung in the grand salon of esterházy palace in tata, and can now be found in the billiard room of the building, which was renovated between 2018 and 2020.

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missioned several artists specifically to paint hunters and hunts. one such artist was Julius von blaas, who stemmed from a dynasty of painters. 53 gyula blaas, as he was called by the Hungarian press, also worked alongside richter in tata, painted for tasziló festetics, and fulfilled numerous commissions from across Hungary for paintings of racehorses and breeding horses. He painted equestrian portraits of the royal couple, and in 1882 he immortalised on canvas a hunt held in gödöllő: the painting shows the company and their pack of hounds assembling for a fox hunt, headed by the royal couple and Crown prince rudolf, with the facade of gödöllő palace in the background54 (fig. 13). At this time gödöllő was one of the centres of hunting with hounds in Hungary. the area was purchased by the Hungarian government in 1867 and presented to the royalcoupleasacrowngift.thekingtransferredownershipofthepalaceandthe estate to the Hungarian treasury, retaining the right to use them and to hunt on the estate; by the end of the century he had extended the territory available for hunting by renting neighbouring lands.

55 Another visitor to gödöllő in the 1880s was the polish painter wojciech Horacy kossak, who had earlier been a pupil of sándor wágner at the Munich Academy of

53 | the father of Julius von blaas senior (1845–1922), karl von blaas (1815–1894), taught painting at the academies in Vienna and Venice, and his pupils included sándor (Alexander) liezen-Mayer. 54 | Julius von blaas ’ s painting of 1882 is today known only from a copy by kornél spányik. 55 | farkas 2013, 11–18. 13

kornÉl spÁnyik After Julius Von blAAs, Royal Fox Hunting in Gödöllő, after 1882

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14

woJCieCH kossAk, Imperial Hunt in Gödöllő/The Start of the Hunt, 1887 fine Arts. kossak presented his painting entitled ImperialHuntinGödöllő, commissioned by franz Joseph, at the winter show of the Műcsarnok in 1887 (fig. 14). the contemporary press wrote that the king had ordered three scenes from kossak, “ whose subjects will be: the meet, the run, the kill” . 56 the painting, now in the collection of the national Museum in warsaw, depicts the king crossing a stream on horseback, while Archduchess gisela, dressed in black hunting garb and a half top hat, rides sidesaddle across a bridge. one of the most interesting incidents in the dynamic painting is being played out on the horizon of the hilly landscape: a saddled bay horse is galloping away from its scarlet-tailcoated rider, who is lying on the ground. this scene exemplifies the narrative nature of sporting art, with its emphasis on recording actual events, so it is highly likely that such an accident did indeed take place on this particular hunt. 57 wilhelm richter, already mentioned above, was not only employed by the aristocracy in Hungary, as on several occasions he painted franz Joseph and his family, and even his hunts, his racehorses, and his jockeys. richter produced two group paintings depicting royal hunts, in one of which a hunting company rests by the danube as a stag, pursued by hounds, flees into the water, 58 while the other is a meet painting, com-

56 | Pesti Hírlap 1886, 4. 57 | based on contemporary press reports, it can be reconstructed that wojciech Horacy kossak attended the royal hunts in autumn 1886, when he made sketches for his paintings. Archduchess gisela did not participate in every hunt, but she was present at the fox hunt on 19 november 1886. press coverage of the event also informs us that the horse ridden by Count teleki faltered, unseating its rider, who fell to the ground. Pesti Napló 1886, [2]. 58 | wilhelm richter, The Royal Family on a Hunt near the Danube Bend, 1876. oil on canvas, 95 × 126.5 cm. Hungarian national Museum, budapest, Historical gallery, inv. no. 1894.

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prising thirty horses and fifty-four identifiable portraits (fig. 15). the latter was commissioned by baron béla wenckheim, president of the budapest Hunting Company, which presented the work to Queen elisabeth, who had it hung on the wall of her study in the royal palace. the painting was enthusiastically received by the press, who published detailed reports about the work, reproduced it as an engraving, and listed the names of the people depicted;59 readers could even order large photographic prints of the work, both coloured and uncoloured. the announcement was placed in the columns of Vadász- és Versenylap, which supplemented its review of the painting with a comment addressed to the Hungarian art world: behold, in addition to the useful outcomes of pack hunting that were listed in the previous issues of this journal, it also affects the development of art. this branch of painting (namely the genre of the sport and military rider) is still very primitive in Hungary. with a couple of exceptions, our painters limit themselves to walking the well-worn path of saints, landscapes and mythological subjects. it is astonishing but true that in Hungary, if we wish to have a few horses painted correctly, we have to look abroad. 60

Although art was not part of the profile of Vadász- és Versenylap, richter’ s painting was not the only artistic subject they dealt with: the paper regularly reported on works 15

wilHelM riCHter, Royal Fox Hunting in Rákos, 1872

59 | repr. Vasárnapi Ujság [sunday news], 5 december 1886, 788–89. 60 | Vadász- és Versenylap 1873, 388.

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16

osZkÁr glAtZ, Disembarkation at Lake Velence, 1904 by foreign artists active in Hungary, gave details about certain major commissions, informed readers about which painters were residing with whom, and produced fullpage illustrations of prize-winning horses. the above quotation, from 1873, called attention to the lack of Hungarian sporting paintings and depictions of cavalry horses, and indeed, as we have seen, a number of british, german and Austrian painters were employed by the uppermost echelons of Hungarian society. what influence did foreign artists exert on Hungarian painters? only a few paintings on the theme of hunting are known in nineteenth-century Hungarian art. one of the largest group portraits was painted by géza Mészöly for Count Jenő Zichy, a regular client of the artist. the painter depicted the count’ s guests and hunting attendants after a wild duck hunt (cat. no. 37). on the distant horizon can be seen the water tower of Zichy Mansion in felsőszentiván (now the village of Aba in fejér county). one of the visitors to the count’ s hunting mansion was kálmán Mikszáth, who wrote about it in 1883: its staircase even addresses the sons of nimrod. everything is a symbol of hunting, the horns in the family coat of arms, which glitters on the facade of the mansion, the great antlers on the walls, the hunting horns, heads of deer and bears, their dreadful tusks like coat hooks, their pelts like carpets … All manner of things have been bequeathed by these innocent wild creatures to their killers! ... last but not least among Zichy ’ s art treasures are the paintings. Here there are a hundred pictures by twenty-one of our homegrown artists, and worthy

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of great attention amongst them is a large work by géza Mészöly that covers the entire wall, which depicts a beloved detail of the park at felsőszentiván, with a hunting company assembled, and a donkey-drawn cart in the foreground. 61

the work is not a typical meet painting as it has none of the features of the english picture type; it is rather in line with Mészöly ’ s own painterly oeuvre and follows the realist landscape tradition of the Munich school. Compared with the preceding examples, this work places less emphasis on the portraits of the hunters, and the composition is dominated by a more naturalist concept of the landscape. Another painting that eschews the inspiration of foreign hunting scenes is a work by oszkár glatz, which shows the portraits of more than forty members of the lake Velence Hunting Company62 (fig. 16). the painting was commissioned as a gift to benedek Meszleny, to commemorate his twenty-fifth year as chairman of the company. 63 glatz presented the group painting at the 1904 show at the Műcsarnok, where it attracted great attention for its large size and its theme. 64 the dynamic composition, which resembles a photograph, does not contain a single genre-like episode, nor are the participants arranged in inactive, theatrical poses. one of the figures in the painting, istván Chernel, wrote in his diary that in february 1904 he visited glatz ’ s studio twice, and he was followed by pál Meszleny and Count lászló eszterházy. 65 several members of the family of Count Cziráky can also be seen in the painting: Antal and his son lászló, and béla and his son József. According to the oral tradition that still lives on in the Meszleny family, the painting was entrusted to the Cziráky family, whose mansion in lovasberény had higher ceilings and was therefore more able to accommodate the large canvas. during world war ii the building was severely damaged by soldiers of the red Army, but the Meszleny family had succeeded in hiding the painting somewhere, the whereabouts of which, however, are still unknown. 66 group portraits depicting hunting companies resting during the hunt, enjoying a more relaxed atmosphere, also generate the effect of a genre scene. in the case of many paintings, the identities of the people who appear in them have now been lost to oblivion, but the efforts to remain faithful to nature and the individuality apparent in the faces portrayed clearly show that these were not the product of the artists ’ imagination but were painted on commission (cat. nos. 35, 36, 38). this is exemplified by Alajos györgyi giergl, who painted a group hunting portrait featuring many figures; although he regularly worked for the aristocracy and even participated in noble hunts on several occasions, he felt distinctly discomfited by the sporting life:

61 | Mikszáth 1883, 64–71. 62 | oszkár glatz, Disembarkation at Lake Velence, 1904. the painting was reproduced, together with the names of the people depicted in it, in Vasárnapi Ujság 1904, 851; Nimród, 10 March 1915, 61. 63 | erdős, farkas, and kállay 1983, 27, 36. 64 | Vasárnapi Ujság 1904, 859–60. 65 | Horváth 1963, 68. 66 | gáspár gránitz and Árpád fehér of the Velence local History society conducted an interview with ignác Meszleny, whose grandfather was pál Meszleny, brother of the original owner of the painting, benedek Meszleny. gránitz and fehér 2014.

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on sunday i had to take part in a hunt, and you can imagine how unpleasant that was for me, as you are aware of my strong aversion. it is my heartfelt regret that, out of the plentiful game, i was unable to send a few hares and wild ducks to show you, at least the ones that i shot.

67

GAME BIRDS AND ANIMALS – STILL LIFES AND PORTRAITS

the animals depicted in paintings and sculptures related to hunting were partly those that assist during the hunt and partly bagged or slain creatures. Animal painting was one of the less highly respected genres in academic art teaching in the nineteenth century, and károly lyka, the best-known art critic and historian in the period, had a rather withering general opinion of its practitioners. one exception was béla pállik, about whom lyka wrote admiringly: He became so intimately acquainted with the sheep, rams and lambs that he was in fact not a painter of animals, but the creator of portraits of individual creatures. 68

béla pállik’ s most celebrated animal portrait is of an english thoroughbred mare named kincsem (literally: “My precious one ” or “My treasure ”), who was born in 1874 and had an undefeated career as a racehorse. Her victories were routinely reported in the pages of Vadász- és Versenylap; in 1878, for example, the year in which the painting was made, kincsem won all fifteen races she took part in during the season. the horse enjoyed enormous popularity, as did pállik’ s portrait of her, which was available as an oil print reproduction. 69 Just as lyka distinguished between general paintings of animals and the type of “animal portrait” created by pállik, numerous portrait-like depictions of dogs, horses or sheep can be found in the art of earlier centuries. portraits of dogs, for example, are rooted in the italian renaissance, and they were unwaveringly popular in dutch and flemish art and in french baroque painting (cat. nos. 54, 67). Animal portraits have much in common with so-called sporting art and meet paintings: this type of painting arrived in Hungary from britain at the same time as the sport of horse racing in the mid-nineteenth century. 70 in england, individualised paintings of animals originally served to popularise breeding animals with an excellent pedigree. 71 outstanding examples of animal portraiture in Hungary were produced not only by béla pállik, but also by members of the Vastagh family: the painter györgy Vastagh senior and his sons.

67 | letter from Alajos györgyi giergl to his wife, Anarcs, 22 september 1857. published in bakay 1938, 44. 68 | lyka 1908, 384–89. 69 | the racehorse named kincsem was painted not only by pállik, but also by Harry Hall, emil Adam and Julius von blaas, while in 1942 the mare was modelled in bronze by györgy Vastagh Junior, based on photos, measurements, and the horse ’ s prepared skeleton. 70 | the best-known depictions of dogs and horses were by george stubbs and sir edwin Henry landseer, while wilhelm richter, who was active in the circle of franz Joseph, was also renowned for his paintings of racehorses. 71 | paget 1945, 8.

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while géza Vastagh mostly painted exotic pictures of lions during hunting expeditions in africa,72 the sculptor györgy Vastagh Junior, pursuing the original purpose of animal portraits, modelled his works on hungarian breeds of domesticated animals, and the most outstanding breeding animals, horses, cattle and sheep (cat. nos. 70, 71). he never idealized his sculptures, but strove to be as realistic as possible: he sketched drawings, made watercolours and took photographs, and in order to maximise the accuracy of his portrayals, he even took samples of their fur or hair, later colouring his plaster casts accordingly. Vastagh also produced sculptures that were of importance to agricultural museology and breed history, which he first presented at the hungarian Millennium exhibition in 1896, resulting in the Ministry of agriculture ordering fifty sculptures from him, and the national hungarian agricultural Society a further sixteen. he later reaped success internationally as well, receiving two gold medals at the exposition Universelle in paris in 1900, and further medals at the 1910 Vienna hunting exhibition and the turin international in 1911;73 the deutsches

72| géza Vastagh, Head of a Lion, 1899. pencil and white heightening on paper, sheet size: 262 × 324 mm, signed lower right: Vastagh géza; dated upper right, in the lion’s mane: 1899. jan. 6. Museum of Fine arts – hungarian national gallery, Budapest, inv. no. 1938-3306. 73| Szöllősy 2009, 6. 17

Unknown

photographer, The Hall of the Lamberg-Merán Mansion in Csákberény, ca. 1940

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18

Ferenc LaMBerg, Roebuck in the Vértes Hills, 1898

Museum in Munich and the British Museum in London also purchased sculptures from györgy Vastagh Junior.74

Vastagh’s anatomically precise sculptures are impeccable exemplars of greyhounds, vizslas, and, among burrowing breeds, dachshunds, but in hunting culture, portrayals of the animals that take part in the hunt are far less widespread than depictions of the prey animals. the latter also include animal portraits: slain animals were often painted as living creatures, with individual features based on the trophies, set in their natural environment. among the artists who proceeded in this way in hungary were the selftaught painter count Franz emerich von Lamberg, the son of Lieutenant general count Ferenc Fülöp Lamberg, who was killed in the hungarian war of independence in 1848–49, and the austrian painter Franz Xaver von pausinger. immortalising slain beasts as living animals served two functions: to record the precise circumstances of the hunt, and to commemorate the creature itself. the ritual nature of hunting is evident in these pictures, and this means of representation is the clearest expression in art of the high regard in which the game is held. producing portraits of slain prey depicted as though they were still alive has, in terms of spirit and intent, much in common with the ceremonies of laying out the game on a catafalque: this practice should not be regarded

74| the sixty sculptures ordered in 1902 are now held by the natural history Museum, London.

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merely as a means of tallying up the bag for the day, however, because the catafalque is prepared in accordance with strict ethical and aesthetic rules, demonstrating that the ceremony is more profound than a celebration of the hunter’ s skill and success. Count lamberg inherited hunting grounds in both Hungary and Austria, and he organised numerous hunts, although he tended rather to paint the game than to shoot it. owing to his colour blindness, he produced his paintings in grisaille (shades of grey), and he hung them in his mansion in Csákberény, beneath the antlers of slain deer75 (figs. 17–18). only a few of his works survive in the family ’ s possession, 76 as the majority were destroyed during the war, as a result of which the animal paintings of Count lamberg have not been researched by art historians. in terms of style, his pictures bear a close resemblance to the works of pausinger, who was franz Joseph’ s favourite animal painter, and who also earned commissions from Hungarian aristocrats: pausinger’ s paintings of roe deer and stags once adorned, among other places, the hunting lodges of Count tasziló festetics in berzence (fig. 1) and Count ferenc nádasdy in nádasdladány (fig. 19), and the converted convent used as a hunting lodge in Majk, owned by Count Miklós Móric esterházy. 77 Another manner of depicting bagged game was to show them in “game strap paintings ” , a sub-category of still lifes. Although there are only a few known examples in nineteenth-century Hungarian art, depictions of bagged game have been common in the history of art, particularly in earlier centuries (cat. nos. 77–85). the characteristic of these still lifes is that, rather than capturing a moment during the act of hunting, they present the outcome of the hunt. they are completely devoid of idealisation and unabashedly show the wounds inflicted on the game, and they include allusions to the method by which they were killed, and sometimes also the weapons deployed, evoking the human participation in their demise. the carefully arranged compositions frequently include allegorical content as well; for example, depictions of game supplemented with kitchen still lifes symbolise the wealth of the owner of the painting.

HUNTING ILLUSTRATIONS

the nineteenth-century heralded in a golden age for the illustrated press in Hungary, and that included its fair share of specialist publications dealing with hunting. the two most important periodicals on this theme, the Vadász- és Versenylap, published from 1857, and Nimród, first issued in 1913, not only employed their own illustrators, but as we have seen, also focused on art-related questions and the dissemination of knowledge with a cultural objective. 78

75 | on the paintings by Count lamberg: szabó 1996, 161–97. 76| the paintings were looked after by fülöp Meran, who was born in Csákberény and who died in 2021 at the age of 95; Meran once served as director of the Hunting Museum in graz. 77 | on nádasdy Mansion: sisa 2000, 21–54; on the Camaldolese hermitage in Majk: rácz and sárossy 2013, 355–69. 78 | the Vadász- és Versenylap was issued between 1857 and 1919 (in its first year it was titled Lapok a lovászat és a vadászat köréből [pages from the realm of horse-riding and hunting]); Nimród is still published today, having appeared continuously since its launch, despite brief interruptions during world war ii, and being renamed Magyar Vadász [Hungarian hunter] between 1948 and 1968.

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19

györgy klösZ, The Library of Count Ferenc Nádasdy ’ s Mansion in Nádasdladány, with a charcoal drawing by Pausinger depicting a stag with twenty-branched antlers, ca. 1900 besides such journals, richly illustrated books on hunting also appeared by the end of the century, covering an increasing range of topics and issued in growing print runs. these books were privately published at first, and in most instances the illustrations were produced by the authors themselves. 79 As we have already seen in the case of Count ferenc lamberg, the hunting aristocracy in the mid-nineteenth century also produced a number of self-taught painters and draughtsmen. only a few of them managed to exhibit before the general public, but their works were nonetheless known among the hunting community. one such private undertaking was a decorative album issued in french and Hungarian by Count Manó Andrássy; entitled Hunting and Sport in Hungary, it was published in 1857 and featured twelve large coloured lithographs and numerous smaller illustrations inserted among the text. 80 besides works by established painters such as ferenc Markó, károly lotz, József Molnár and károly sterio, the volume also featured contributions drawn by Count Manó Andrássy himself (Greyhound Coursing, Great Bustard Hunting, Wild Boar Hunting, Fishing) and by baron béla orczy (Stag Hunting, The Hunters ’ Hut in Csákó, Chasing the Pack in Csákó, In Hot Pursuit). the baron, who regarded his artistic endeavours as mere “dabbling in the arts ” , 81 learnt to paint from károly klette, the father of gusztáv keleti. 82 one of orczy ’ s works in

79 | Count Manó Andrássy, for example, published stories about his exotic hunts, illustrated with his own drawings (Andrássy 1857). on hunting stories and periodicals: Vuray, rácz fodor, and szabó 2000. 80 | Andrássy 1857. 81 | Vasárnapi Ujság 1882, 405. 82 | Vasárnapi Ujság 1879, 634.

Adrienn prÁgAi | tHe nAture of Hunting – tHe nAture of soCiAl representAtion || 43

Andrássy ’ s album, The Hunters ’ Hut in Csákó, is among the earliest Hungarian examples of a meet painting, providing evidence of the influence of english art in the first half of the 1850s. A series of books entitled Osztrák–Magyar Monarchia írásban és képben [the AustroHungarian Monarchy in words and pictures] was published between 1885 and 1902, “At the initiative of and with the collaboration of His imperial and royal Majesty Crown prince rudolf” , who was renowned as a passionate hunter. 83 the lavishly illustrated volumes sought to provide a panoramic ethnographic, historical, geographical, economic and cultural overview of all the nations in the Monarchy. the Hungarian edition was edited by Mór Jókai. As part of each volume, the presentation of every region also featured a description of local hunting and fishing; the section on the Hungarian great plain, for instance, was accompanied by Árpád feszty ’ s drawing of a swamp fisherman-forager, or pákász (cat. no. 94). the hunts of the Hungarian royal court are discussed in the sub-chapter entitled Gödöllő and its Environs, with an illustration by gusztáv keleti84 (fig. 20). gödöllő Castle is only visible in the distance (depicted, according to keleti’ s own notes, from the favourite bench of Archduchess Marie Valerie), while the foreground reveals a lush natural environment. the same 20

gusZtÁV keleti, Gödöllő, early 1890s

83 | Osztrák–Magyar Monarchia írásban és képben 1885–1902. 84 | ibid., 1893, 523.

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sub-chapter also features pál Vágó’ s image of a royal fox hunt, in which franz Joseph, in the company of his two daughters and Crown prince rudolf, all on horseback, is about to jump over a fence, led by a pack of hounds (cat. no. 38). 85 At the end of the century, one of Hungary ’ s best-known hunting authors, istván bársony, published two volumes of literature: the book entitled In the Forest, In the Field was illustrated with pictures by lászló pataky, béla spányi and other painters, 86 while Silence, released a year later, featured works by Antal neogrády. 87 these scenes were mostly taken from the everyday lives of hunters, genre pieces showing hunters riding through the forest with their dogs. Compared with the crowded, action-filled paintings commissioned by the aristocracy and the king, the simplified compositions in bársony ’ s volumes aimed at precisely illustrating the text they accompanied. the quantity of works of fine art on the theme of hunting decreased in the twentieth century, with the genre almost completely losing its autonomy, but the output of illustrations for books and periodicals thrived similarly to in the preceding century. *

the universality of the theme of hunting is present in a number of phenomena in nineteenth-century Hungarian art: as well as the different genres and media presented here, which give equal prominence to hunting whether in still lifes or (animal) portraits, illustrations or genre pieces, medals or paintings, this overarching theme proved so pervasive and versatile that it even prompted lay members of the aristocracy, without formal training in art but with a passion for hunting, to try their hand at being artistically creative. why did artists in the nineteenth-century, professional or amateur, choose to depict themes related to hunting? because they wanted to demonstrate the hunting skills of the people depicted (themselves or their clients); because they sought to emphasise their wealth (their own, or that of their clients); and because they wanted to preserve for posterity the fruits of their own hunting ventures by erecting memorials to them. these intents and motives led artists back almost as far as the prehistoric beginnings of the history of the depiction of hunting: the rituality inherent in the representation of hunting can still be glimpsed even after so many millennia have passed.

85 | ibid., 527. 86 | bársony 1894. 87 | bársony 1895.

Adrienn prÁgAi | tHe nAture of Hunting – tHe nAture of soCiAl representAtion || 45